Persecution

Prejudice

Discrimination

And most of all, misunderstood.


The minorities of every society face such adversity even up to recent times. Times where tolerance and acceptance are preached to counter ethnocentrism and xenophobia, times where we are taught not to judge those who are different. Try as we may, the minorities still face such treatment, openly, or secretly. Homo Sapiens have come a long way since the beginning, evolving from primates. We've come to think of ourselves as the most superior of all beings on Earth, looking down upon all. All, it seems, even those among us, whom the majority deem to be different from mainstream. It is useless to deny such practices do not exist, discrimination is still apparent, to those who are the minority, to those who are different.

Negros,
Jews,
Middle Easterners,
Homosexuals,
Muslims,
Asians,

Homo Superior.


We fear what we do not understand. And what we fear, we retaliate against. We retaliate by words, by profiling, ridicule, ostracism. We retaliate by force. We retaliate because we fear that those who are different may one day rise to be the majority and reverse the roles.
But we do not learn. We do not seek to understand, not all of us do. We only judge. And to us, a world of the Homo Superior, a world of the mutants, is a world not living in. Because to them, we are different. To them, we may seem to be the weaker. To them, they could crush us if they wanted.

And they did. So often. Many a time, the world has been threatened by those who seek its domination. More then often, these are carried out by metahumans with egotistical, megalomaniac ideals. Those who seek revenge for the injustice done to them long ago, those who seek to carry out their own brand of providence.
And yet, time and time again, they have been thwarted by some, a minority of those who seek justice and have the means to stand up for it.

Heroes.

They come in many forms apparently. Like a multi-billionaire whose self-sponsors
his alter ego as a crusading modern-day knight of red and gold. Like the boy who grew up to be a man, gifted with the powers of an arachnid, who upholds the ideal that with great power comes great responsibility.
Like the veteran of World War Two, who volunteered for a potentially life-threatening experiment to save his country, who stood for justice and freedom, who led all these heroes to the front, and gave them the courage and inspiration to continue on.


But this is not a mourning for Steve Rogers. Not for Captain America.
This is for a different kind of heroes, a kind born with their gifts, not given.


This is about the Mutants.

How often have we seen a mutant? Television, movie screens, comic books. What do we see in those? We see mutants with gifts that battle other mutants, we cheer as they vanquish foes, we cheer as they save the day. Our day.
What about their day? Who saves them when the time calls for it?

To those unaware, the present Earth, Earth-616, has changed. Not life-threateningly or dangerously though, well, not to us at least. In the past, the heroes of mutantkind have been invincible to us, getting through their own crisis themselves. And how we loved them. How we loved the X-men. We loved the team leader and ever-the-boy-scout character Scott Summers. We loved the patient and caring Charles Xavier. We loved the anti-hero James Howlett and his brand of vigilantism. The X-men, were invincible.

Until now. Mutantkind, not just the X-men, have suffered a great deal recently. From the events of the House of M and Decimation spawned the 198. The 198 of them left of their kind. Fate it seems, has dealt them such a great blow.

It all began with 1 woman. Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch.

"Daddy, no more mutants."

And the world was changed thereafter.

From what seemed to be one and a half million, there were now 198 mutants left in this world.
Those who suffered from Wanda's actions were depowered, more then often causing them their lives. Those who could fly, fell to the ground. Those who could walk on fire, burned to death. Those who life-support depended on their unique physiology, died without knowing why.

198, such a small number.

Such a minority.

In the aftermath of the Decimation, the X-men tried to gather those left, to band them together and give them a proper home in their mansion. However there still existed those who sought to use these remaining individuals for their own gains, and soon, those not of the X-men departed to live seperate lives. There have been battles of course, between good and evil, this cannot be avoided. But with every casualty that each sides suffer, mutantkind dwindles a little more.

More recently, the Government of America sanctioned and brought forth a SuperHuman Registration Act, where every metahuman has to register themselves to the government for security purposes and measures. Those who do so risk revealing their secret identity to the public, and for those who did, dome suffered greatly. Just ask Peter Parker, if you can find him before S.H.I.E.L.D. does.
But the mutants were different. Their identities were known all along, and they took a neutral stand. When the Civil War ended, they were granted amnesty.

There has been one more fact that was only recently revealed.
Since Decimation, there have been no births of mutants worldwide.

Their numbers are dying, and will never rise.
And still they are treated with discrimination.

Such a minority.

Will the World turn against them finally, in fear and terror?
Will they drive the mutants to a corner and hunt them like animals?

But will you be willing to see what an animal does to protect itself in desperation when driven to a corner?
Will you be willing to see how vicious it can get?

The mutants are now truly an endangered species. It is up to us as to whether we salvage the dying, or wipe them out from existence. But before we act, please remember the deeds they have done for us, the good they have done for us, from a minority to the majority.

Remember the Mutants.


For those who died in the Decimation. And for the 198.

Ken blogged on 7:32 PM

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